Cody Williams

Lubbock

ST. LOUIS (March 5, 2008) – Building on two years of success and momentum, the Bud Light/USA Rock Paper Scissors League (USARPS) Championship is going global in 2008.

After a weekend of mentally and physically exhausting competition, a new Bud Light USARPS League champion will be crowned on Sunday, June 22 at Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Not only will this year’s champion hold one of the most prestigious titles in sports, he or she will walk away with a $50,000 prize and a ticket to compete in Beijing, China during the Summer Olympics.

The U.S. champion will travel to Beijing as USARPS League’s representatives at the inaugural International Rock Paper Scissors Federation Championship (IRPSF). There they will compete against Rock Paper Scissors champions from Canada, Guam, Hong Kong, Ireland and Malaysia to determine which country can lay claim to the title of the world’s best Rock Paper Scissors player.

“The game of Rock Paper Scissors has experienced explosive growth over the past few years with the help of Bud Light. The United States of America is simply not large enough to contain it any longer,” said USARPS League Commissioner Matti Leshem. “We’re bursting onto the world stage with a competition to identify the greatest Rock Paper Scissors player among 6.5 billion people. What better place to start than Beijing in 2008?”

“Bud Light, with its endless refreshment and superior drinkability, is all about opportunities that are fun, social and co-ed for adult beer drinkers,” said Bud Light director Rick Leininger. “Here we have a competition that is all of those things, and who better to bring it to a global audience than the world’s best-selling beer?”

The process to identify the 2008 USARPS League champion begins with local qualifying matches across the country. Tournaments are currently underway in 300 markets nationwide and will continue through April 30, when 300-plus finalists worthy of competing for the sports’ richest prize will have earned their tickets to Vegas. The five countries joining the U.S. for the international competition in Beijing will conduct their tournaments concurrently.

Based in St. Louis, Anheuser Busch is the leading American brewer, holding a 48.5 percent share of U.S. beer sales. The company brews the world’s largest-selling beers, Budweiser and Bud Light. Anheuser Busch also owns a 50 percent share in Grupo Modelo, Mexico’s leading brewer, and a 27 percent share in China brewer Tsingtao, whose namesake beer brand is the country’s best-selling premium beer. Anheuser-Busch ranked No. 1 among beverage companies in FORTUNE Magazine’s Most Admired U.S. and Global Companies lists in 2007. Anheuser Busch is one of the largest theme park operators in the United States, is a major manufacturer of aluminum cans and one of the world’s largest recyclers of aluminum cans. For more information, visit www.anheuser-busch.com.

USA Rock Paper Scissors League (www.usarps.com) is the governing body of the sport in the U.S. The league was founded in 2005 by Matti Leshem and Andrew Golder to bring rules and structure to the sport in the U.S., and has hundreds of members and affiliate Rock Paper Scissor cells nationwide.